1) Recent increases in oil production in West Texas have also increased the amount of money available to the UT System, according to Scott Kelley, the System’s executive vice chancellor for business affairs. From June 2013 to June 2014, the market value of the Permanent University Fund, or PUF, increased 19.4 percent — from $14.4 billion to $17.2 billion — according to reports from The University of Texas Investment Management Company, the organization that invests money for the UT System. “Our revenues and the values of our assets in West Texas have grown substantially in recent years to allow for a larger endowment,” Chairman Paul Foster said after an August meeting of the Board of Regents. PUF is an endowment of 2.1 million acres in West Texas that was created to benefit UT and Texas A&M University systems. The proceeds from the sale of oil, gas, sulfur and water royalties are invested in the form of stocks, bonds and equity interest to establish the Available University Fund, or AUF. Two-thirds of these funds go toward the UT System and one-third goes to the Texas A&M system. (Source)

2) While scanning Facebook earlier this week, I was taken aback to read that The University of Texas is one of the “richest colleges in America,” according to a report on Yahoo! Finance. It was reported that “The University of Texas” has the largest endowment for a public school in the nation, and the third-largest overall. After we contacted Yahoo! Finance’s content partner, The Street, it published a clarification. After all, the endowment is as large as reported, but it does not belong exclusively to The University of Texas at Austin. This is because of a principle we all learned in kindergarten: sharing. The mistake made in this report is a frequent one that comes up based on the size of the University of Texas System Permanent University Fund, or PUF. The endowment’s $17 billion worth does place it right behind Harvard and Yale’s endowments, respectively, as the third-largest in the nation. But like many things, it is more complicated than that. (Source)

3) University of Texas System‘s endowment assets reached a new peak of $21.7 billion as of Feb. 28, halfway through its fiscal year. The prior apex was $20.6 billion as of Aug. 31, 2012. Assets of the larger of the university system’s two pooled endowment funds, the Permanent University Fund, rose 5.2% to $14.2 billion as of Feb. 28 from $13.5 billion as of Aug. 31. The General Endowment Fund increased 4.2% to $7.4 billion in the six months ended Feb 28 from $7.1 billion, according to meeting materials from Tuesday’s meeting of the board of directors of University of Texas Investment Management Co. UTIMCO manages the endowment and operating funds of the University of Texas and Texas A&M systems. Both UTIMCO and the University of Texas System are based in Austin. (Source)

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